GCN AND EUROSPORT TO BE EXCLUSIVE BROADCAST PARTNERS OF ZWIFT ‘TOUR FOR ALL’ PROFESSIONAL RACE SERIES
Eurosport and Global Cycling Network (GCN) are proud to be bringing live cycling back to millions of sports fans through the Zwift’s Tour for All exhibition racing series, a professional racing tour to be held on the Zwift virtual platform over five stages raced May 4-8th, 2020.
Featuring teams from both the men’s and women’s World Tours, each stage will be screened live on all Eurosport platforms and streamed globally on the GCN app - with highlights across the GCN show and social media channels, as part of the first collaboration between the two brands that will serve the largest community of cycling fans and provide more ways than ever to watch premium cycling content.
Both men's and women's racing will be screened each day between 1400 and 1600 BST (1500 and 1700 CEST) with some of the best cycling teams in the world including Mitchelton-Scott, EF-Education, NTT, Alpecin-Fenix, Bahrain-McLaren, Canyon//SRAM Racing, CCC-Liv and Boels Dolmans competing for race honours. Teams and the top 25 riders will gain points across the week alongside a daily individual race winner. There will also be intermediate points on each stage and bonus points for the Top 10 on the Queen Stage (Stage 5).
Stages will range in distance from approximately 45km to 75km and approximately 400m and 1700m in elevation with race times estimated to be between 1hr 15min and 2hr, depending on the distance and elevation of each stage. Results will be points based and determined by the team’s performance and results for each stage.
Andrew Georgiou as President, Eurosport and Global Sports Rights & Sports Marketing Solutions, added: “During the current pause in live sport, Discovery is bringing to the fore its creativity and partnership building credentials to bring fans the type of live content they’ve been missing. We are going beyond the archive to offer something completely new that will bring together cycling fans on mass with new stories and unpredictable moments at every turn.”
“Through this series, we aim to leverage Discovery’s unrivalled global scale, brands and channel portfolio as part of a deeper collaboration between Eurosport and GCN to bring new and larger audiences to cycling so they can experience the thrills of the sport first-hand.”
Simon Wear, Founder and CEO of Play Sports Group, said: “In the current climate, cycling fans all over the world are seeking new ways to engage with their passion and keep up to date with the riders they are used to seeing in action through their towns and villages. We feel it’s extremely important to support and celebrate the efforts of these teams and riders and share everything we can with the cycling community. Tour for All is a great example of riders across continents teaming up to fuel their desire to be the best in the sport. With the interactive features on the new GCN app, it’s a fantastic way to capture the excitement of professional stage racing and share it with cycling fans all over the world across the Eurosport TV network, Eurosport Digital and the GCN App.”
Eric Min, Zwift CEO and Co-Founder said: “I’m thrilled to finally be able to announce this new exhibition series in conjunction with GCN and Eurosport, bringing high level racing and top class entertainment to the world’s cycling fans.
“Over the past few months, we’ve delivered a huge number of unique experiences and opportunities to ride with the stars of the World Tour peloton. I know many have been keen to see when Zwift will bring World Tour teams together to race, and I can’t think of a better way to deliver this series of Men’s and Women’s exhibition racing than to kick off our charity month, ‘Tour for All’ in support of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).”
We kick off the Tour with a flat-ish stage for the sprinters. Both courses feature one short steep hill so expect some action with multiple ascents.
Our first mountain stage. We begin by taking Ocean Boulevard around to the reverse Hilly KOM, which is the first half of the Figure 8 route. Then it’s over to the Volcano and up to the top before descending down and heading to the Italian Villas then the Mayan Jungle for a reverse loop of the circuit. After climbing out of the jungle, we descend back to sea level, hit The Esses and spin a quick around the Volcano Circuit. Then it’s through downtown Watopia and out Ocean Boulevard once more to the forward Epic KOM. Our route finishes at the Epic KOM banner.
Course: Sand and Sequoias, Watopia. Elevation Gain: 147m (482ft). Total distance: 42.6km (26.5miles)
The Tour for All professional racing series will open a month-long charity fundraising initiative that will see Zwift donate a total of $125,000 to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and its COVID-19 crisis fund. An additional $125,000 can be unlocked once 250,000 people complete a stage of the Tour for All. The professional racing series is designed to showcase the mass-participation stages and encourage Zwifters to take part by riding some of the same courses that the pros have raced.
As such, the main focus for the race series is to deliver fun - both for the teams and riders competing, and for cycling fans at home. Zwift racing is a discipline in its own right and will be a new experience for many of the riders competing. Races will experience the drafting benefits of following other riders, and will feel the same changes in gradient and terrain as they would out on the road. However, Zwift’s gamification, designed to make indoor riding more fun, a new understanding of race tactics thanks to Zwift’s PowerUps. PowerUps deliver a range of small advantages that, when used at the right time, can help shape the race.
The GCN mobile app is available to download for free from iOS Apple Store and Android Google Play Stores.
For more information on Zwift’s Tour for All head to Ride - zwift.com/tfaride. For more information on Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) head to www.msf.org.
Play Sports Group is the world’s leading creator of cycling digital video distributed on YouTube and Facebook. We are a digital sports media company focused on the world of cycling. Combining our deep love of the sport with world-leading expertise in video and digital distribution, we have built a leadership position in the market
We operate eleven market-leading YouTube channels: Global Cycling Network, Global Cycling Network en Español, GCN auf Deutsch, Global Cycling Network Italia, GCN Japan, Global Mountain Bike Network, Global Triathlon Network, Electric Mountain Bike Network, GCN Tech, GMBN Tech and GCN Racing with over 8.7 million followers across associated social media platforms. Together they have accumulated over 12,500 years of watch time, 17.6m video likes and an average of 77 million monthly views, creating the world’s largest online video cycling community. Subscribe to GCN via YouTube and follow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and subscribe to GMBN via YouTube and follow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Headquartered in Bath, England, PSG is also home to SHIFT Active Media, the award-winning cycling marketing agency, who work alongside some of the biggest, most high profile brands in the cycling world. Play Sports Group is a subsidiary of Discovery Inc.
Eurosport is the number one sport destination in Europe, fuelling the passion of fans and connecting them with the greatest sports events in the world. As the Home of the Olympic Games in Europe, Eurosport delivered the ultimate Games experience for PyeongChang 2018 reaching both record linear and digital viewership across localized Eurosport services. Firmly established as the Home of Cycling, Grand Slam Tennis and Winter Sport, Eurosport channels – Eurosport 1, Eurosport 2 – reach 246 million cumulative subscribers across 75 countries in Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa and the Middle East. Eurosport.com is Europe’s No 1 online sports news website with an average of 30 million unique users per month and, along with the Eurosport app (available on iOS and Android), the only place to watch Eurosport anytime online, on mobile and on tablet devices. Eurosport Events specializes in the management and promotion of international sporting events. More information is available by visiting corporate.eurosport.com.
Zwift is the fitness company born from gaming. They are dedicated fitness enthusiasts that also happen to be experienced software and video game developers. Combining that passion and deep understanding of the fitness world, Zwift is the first company to use massive multiplayer gaming technology to bring the outdoor experience indoors. Athletes from around the globe can train and compete with each other in rich, 3D-generated worlds simply by connecting their existing devices & hardware (e.g. cycle trainers, power meters, treadmills heart rate monitors, etc) wirelessly via open industry standard ANT+ and BLE. From friendly competition, to racing & structured training programs, Zwift is building a community of like-minded athletes united in the pursuit of a better social fitness experience.
About Zwift
Zwift is the fitness company born from gaming. We’re dedicated fitness enthusiasts, experienced video game developers, and disruptive thinkers. Play is in our DNA and we know fun fuels results.
Zwift utilizes massively multiplayer online gaming technology to create rich, 3D worlds ripe for exploration. Join thousands of cyclists and runners in immersive playgrounds like London, New York, and Paris as well as our very own Watopia.
Our app connects wirelessly to exercise equipment: bike trainers, treadmills, and more, so your real world effort powers your avatar in the game.
From friendly races to social rides and structured training programs, Zwift unites a diverse community in pursuit of a more fun, immersive and social fitness experience.
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